I Know
by victorsfall
Summary: "This was how nights spent with Summer had always gone. Her voice was never happy when he whispered three little words into her ear, instead always stabbing at his chest, as if it were her goal to completely destroy him."
"I love you."

"I know."

There was nothing else to say. This was how nights spent with Summer had always gone. Her voice was never happy when he whispered three little words into her ear, instead always stabbing at his chest, as if it were her goal to completely destroy him.

It was never enough for Summer though. He was never enough. Even while she lay atop his body naked in an intimate embrace, he was never enough for Summer, except in that moment he would push into her womb with a passionate desperation that Taiyang could never provide. He couldn't after all. Because how hungry for a woman could he be when he had never been forced to watch his best friend play house with the only woman he had ever truly fallen in love with? So no, while Taiyang could provide the passion that Summer wanted, he could never provide the same sort of longing for her that Qrow could.

She craved it, he came to realize, the moment he had screamed that drunken outburst in front of her and Yang. He was glad that Yang had been too young to process what she'd witnessed. She didn't deserve to remember him screaming at Summer in such vivid anger and jealousy that it had seemed as if he might tear the small woman's head from her body. It had caused them to commit taboo that same night when he had returned to apologize to Summer. He never stopped thanking God that Taiyang had been a heavy sleeper back then and had not come downstairs to find his best friend fucking his wife against the tabletop all four of them had eaten lunch at earlier on that day. It sickened him to think about it, to think about the fact that he was _not_ sick by the fact that he'd slept with Summer, only by the thought of Taiyang catching them in the act. Taiyang didn't need to see that played out in his kitchen. It was already hard enough for him to hear after she was long dead.

"I love you more than Tai does."

"I know."

I know was all she ever said about his declarations of passionate endearment. He practically bled love for her, if the wounds caused by such affections were any proof at all.

He realized that it was never enough for him either. He had never been a creature of great morality, but it hurt to know that he could never eat dinner with her as more than an old friend, that Taiyang could just put his arms around her whenever he pleased without scorn from her, that the only thing that seemed to matter to her in their fucked up semblance of a relationship was the desperate passion that he gave to her during sex. It wasn't sating his hunger for her love, and she knew it, but there was no way she would simply give up what she was taking from him. She always pulled him back in when he swore to her he was not going to be coming back. She knew how to pull Qrow Branwen's strings, and he was content to not stop her.

The most distinctive memory that he held of this was some time after she had revealed herself to be pregnant. He was leaving. He had to leave for that baby to have a normal childhood.

"I can't stay."

"Qrow!" Her voice sounded so distant to him.

"I can't, Summer! This lie has gone on long enough!"

"Qrow, please!" She was begging now, "You can't leave me…"

He was immediately stricken by the sobs that left her mouth as she clung to his shirt, her eyes screwed shut in a desperate attempt to dam the tears: it was in vain. His heart clenched in agonized torture in his chest as he stared at the saltwater rushing down her cheeks. "Don't go! Don't go, don't go, don't go!" He wanted to, he wanted to, he wanted to, he- he didn't. He loved her more than he loved himself. He couldn't deny her anything she asked of him. He'd give it all up for Summer.

His lips met her cheeks in a gentle caress, his hands cupping her face as he kissed away the tears. He felt his touch relaxing her cries, the sobs receding back underneath her breast. She pulled him into a kiss then, the first _real_ one they had ever shared.

"I love you."

"I know."

And suddenly, the tables had been turned.


End file.
